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Thursday, January 18, 2007

I do not know how we will top this birthday. We partied for three days.

I love that Maren shares her birthday with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Because of this, we get a three-day weekend around the time of her special day each year. This year January 15 fell on a Monday, and Justin was off work for the holiday. We went bowling together as a family in the morning. What a great memory!

In the afternoon she opened a few gifts that had been mailed from grandparents across the country. Here she shows off her new dress-up princess dress and a fistful of Breyer horses.

In the evening, we headed off together to the dinosaur museum, which is all she has declared she wants to do since Abilene had her birthday there last May. Besides, Justin needed to see it. Maren enjoyed excavating the chocolate chips out of a cookie at a special station before we entered the museum.

Another big hit of the evening was the sand table about halfway through the walking tour. Maren played there for quite awhile, and Jesse went to a little room next door and played with giant toy dinosaurs.

As if that wasn't enough fun for one day, when we got home Aunt Chris was waiting for us with balloons and cake mix (to bake in our oven)! This little girl was fully princessed by the end of the festivities.

We gave Maren a “growing up” gift of our old digital camera. She has since filled the memory card many times over, pretty much within a day of every time we manage to empty the photos off of it!

Two days later, we had some of her friends over to celebrate “party” style. Everyone had a wonderful time. I am very glad these birthdays only come once a year!